Comparison Chart of Health-Related Quality of Life (QoL) Instruments

(Created on 12-15-2008. Last updated on 07-28-2009. Public Population Project in Genomics. All rights reserved.)

WHO (Five)
World Health Organization Quality of Life SF-36® Health Survey and SF-36v2TM Health SF-12® Health Survey and SF-12v2TM
Euroqol EQ-5D Well-Being Index Nottingham Health Profile Health Utility Index
Instrument's name assessment instrument Survey Health Survey
(EQ-5D) (WHO-5) (NHP) (HUI)
(WHOQOL-BREF) (SF-36® / SF-36v2TM) (SF-12® / SF-12v2TM)
Author(s) The World Health Organization Quality of Life
The EuroQol Group P. Bech S. M. Hunt, J. McEwen, and S. P. McKenna C. D. Sherbourne and J. E. Ware J. E Ware D. Feeny, W. Furlong and G. W. Torrance
(WHOQOL) group
http://www.galen-
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/research_tools
Link http://www.euroqol.org/ http://www.who-5.org/ research.com/index.asp?sectionID=4 http://www.sf-36.org/tools/SF36.shtml http://www.sf-36.org/tools/sf12.shtml http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/hug/
/whoqolbref/en/

Physical functioning
Quality of life
Main Topic Quality of life Quality of life Health status Health status Health status Health-Related Quality of Life
Health Status
Utility
To provide a simple, generic measure of health for To assess the individuals' perceptions on the To measure distress in physical, social and To measure generic health concepts relevant To measure health status and outcomes in large To measure health status, health-related quality of
Objectives To measure positive psychological well-being.
clinical and economic appraisal. quality of their life. emotional domains across age, disease, and treatment groups population survey. life, and produce utility scores.
Sensation
Mobility
Emotion
General health
Physical Capacity (Pain, Energy, Sleep, mobility, General health Cognitive
Physical functioning
etc.) Pain Physical functioning Self-Care
Role physical
Mobility Psychological (Positive feelings, Thinking, Self- Physical mobility Role physical Pain
Bodily pain
Domains/categories Self-care esteem, etc.) Sleep Bodily pain Fertility
Psychological well-being Vitality
covered Usual activities Social Relationships (Relationships, Support, Sexual Emotional reactions Vitality Vision
Social functioning
Pain/ Discomfort activity) Energy Social functioning Hearing
Mental health
Anxiety/Depression Environment (Safety, Home, Finance, Leisure, Social isolation Mental health Speech
Role emotional
Pollution, Transport, etc.) Role emotional Ambulation
Reported health transition
Dexterity
Cognition

Population Targeted Adult Adult Adult Adult (16+ years) Adolescent, Adult (14+ years) Adolescent, Adult (14+ years) All population

During the Last 4 weeks (standard version) During the last 4 weeks (standard version)
Time recall Current day Over the last 2 weeks During the Last 2 weeks Current day During the past 1,2, 4 weeks or in general
During the past week (Acute version) During the past week (Acute version)

Self-administered format: 15 Questions

Number of items 5 Questions and 1 Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) 5 Questions 26 Questions 38 Questions 36 Questions 12 Questions
Interviewer-administered format: 40 Questions
Self-administered format: 3 min
Time to complete 8 min 2 min 5-20 min 5-10min 5-10 min 2-3 min
Interviewer-administered format: 10 min
Self-administered
Interviewer-administered
Proxy-administered
Self-administered Self-administered
Self-administered Self-administered
Interviewer-administered Interviewer-administered
Administration mode Proxy-administered Self-administered Interviewer-administered Self-administered Paper-administered
Telephone-administered Telephone-administered
Telephone-administered Computer-administered
Computer-administered Computer-administered
Web-system-administered
 WHO (Five)
World Health Organization Quality of Life SF-36® Health Survey and SF-36v2TM Health SF-12® Health Survey and SF-12v2TM
Euroqol EQ-5D Well-Being Index Nottingham Health Profile Health Utility Index
Instrument's name assessment instrument Survey Health Survey
(EQ-5D) (WHO-5) (NHP) (HUI)
(WHOQOL-BREF) (SF-36® / SF-36v2TM) (SF-12® / SF-12v2TM)

Language
About 83 languages About 26 languages About 8 languages About 96 languages About 25 languages
(Available About 23 languages About 74 languages
translations)

© The Medical Outcomes Trust (MOT), Health © The Medical Outcomes Trust (MOT), Health
© Psychiatric Research Unit, WHO Collaborating
Copyright © The Euroqol Group © The World Health Organisation ©Galen Research Assessment Lab (HAL) and QualityMetric Assessment Lab (HAL) and QualityMetric © Health Utilities Inc., Dundas ON Canada
Centre, Frederiksborg General Hospital
Incorporated. Incorporated.

a. With the signature of a contract/ agreement

a. Free access
Fill in the license application form on the Fill in the license application form on the
Licensing fees are determined by the EuroQol
Conditions of use Free access b. In order to obtain permission for use of the QualityMetric website: http://www.sf- QualityMetric website: http://www.sf-
Executive With a written permission from Galen Research b. With fees for additionnal intrumentations that
various language versions it is necessary to 36.org/wantsf.aspx?id=1 36.org/wantsf.aspx?id=1
are proprietary.
contact the collaborating sites directly.

Murphy B, Herrman H, Hawthorne G, Pinzone T,

References
EuroQol Group. EuroQol-A new facility for the
measurement of health-related quality of life.
Health Policy. 1990; 16: 199-208.
Brazier JE, Jones N, Kind P. Testing the validity of
the EuroQol and comparing it with the SF-36 health
survey questionnaire. Quality of Life Research.
1993; 2:169-180.
There are also a version for children from 8-11 year-
Additional Comments
old (ED-5D-Y).
Evert H (2000). Australian WHOQoL instruments: Hunt, SM, McEwen, J et McKenna, SP (1981) The Ware, J. E., Jr., & Sherbourne, C. D. (1992). The
User’s manual and interpretation guide. Australian Nottingham Health Profile User's Manual. MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36): I.
WHOQoL Field Study Centre, Melbourne, Australia. Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Ware J Jr, Kosinski M, Keller SD. A 12-Item Short-
Care, 30(6), 473-483. [PMID: 1593914] Form Health Survey: construction of scales and
The WHOQOL Group. (1998) Development of the Hunt, SM, McEwen, J, Williams, J and Papp, E preliminary tests of reliability and validity. Med
http://www.who-5.org/ World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality (1981) The NHP : Subjective health status and McHorney, C. A., Ware, J. E., Jr., & Raczek, A. E. Care 1996; 34:220-33. http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/hug/
of life assessment. Psychol Med 28(3):551-8. medical consultations. Social Science and Medicine, (1993). The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey PMID: 8628042
15A, 221-229. (SF-36): II. Psychometric and clinical tests of validity
The WHOQOL Group. (1993) Study protocol for the in measuring physical and mental health
World Health Organization project to develop a Hunt S, McEwen J, McKenna S (1986) Measuring constructs. Medical Care, 31(3), 247-263. [PMID:
Quality of Life assessment instrument (WHOQOL). Health Status. Croom Helm. ISBN 0-7099-3584-6 8450681]
Qual Life Res. Apr;2(2):153-9
There are 3 versions available.
An integrated, computerized, web-based system of
It is a short version of WHOQOL-100 It is an alternative of SF-36®.
administering and scoring HUI questionnaires is
available